Week 7&8

Q. What does Dick (1995) himself theories about the I Ching?

Philip. K. Dick regarded I Ching as synchronicity, which means every event happens now without a pattern that an event happens not only yesterday but also today and tomorrow. Because it is not connected, individual connections with other people cannot exist.

 “I Ching has been around for three thousand years and still being used.” (Dick, 1995) Although it has been used for long time, proposes for using it are different. Firstly, China and Richard Wilhelm used for a prediction for future. Contrast with this, Dick’s opinion is totally different and he (1965) mentioned “the book is analytical and diagnostic, not predicted.” He also pointed out that we can use the book for any purpose and he suggested its examples. John Cage, one of American composers and music therapists, has used I Ching for his music chord. In case of Dick, he used it to “develop the direction of a novel.” Moreover, we can find that he mentioned “I speak from experience. The Oracle- the I Ching- told me to write this piece” through ‘Schizophrenia and the Book of Changes (1965).’

Dick followed what I Ching gave advices to him, and he further regarded himself as a schizoid person. And, he theorised that a schizoid-effective people are imprisoned in their own world which there are the things they want. As a result, they cannot get out of there. As he mentioned, he also put himself in the world.

Other people might think that he is crazy and abnormal, but I differently think about him. Even though what he mentioned is unreasonable, he is not crazy because his novels that he wrote through I Ching have been recognised as the best novels. His thoughts and eyes that looked at the world are just different from us. I believe that it was possible that his novels are involved in the best novels because he is just different.

 

Reference

Dick, P.K. (1995). Schizophrenia and the I Ching. In Sutin, L. (Ed.), The shifting Realities of Philip K. Dick (pp.175-182). New York:Vintage.